Central Park's iconic horse-drawn carriages would be replaced by other tourist conveyances -- electric, vintage replica vehicles have been mentioned -- if new Mayor Bill de Blasio fulfills his pledge Monday to quickly ban the carriages from New York City.

Carriage horses await passengers at New York's Central Park in this file photo. Bill de Blasio, New York City's new mayor, has pledged to ban horse-drawn carriages from the city.Marcin Wasilewski | Thinkstock

A story Tuesday about de Blasio's intention drew a stampede of comments from syracuse.com readers for and against the idea. Here's a sample:

From Free Speaker: Putting people out of business? Over horses? Animal cruelty laws make no sense. You can shoot a deer but you can't shoot your dog. You can rip the mouth of a fish, but you can't rip a cat's mouth. You can whip a horse to make it run faster in a race, but you can't earn an honest living giving rides in the park. They should make ALL animal cruelty illegal, or none of it.

From myowan: Maybe someone will do a story on the fate of the horses once they are starving or euthanized after they no longer have work.

From NZStars: This is a wise decision. Even the former mayor's daughter, a professional horsewoman, pleaded with her father to end the carriage horses in the Central Park area.
The drivers may do their best to treat the horses well, but their working conditions in the traffic and noise of that part of Manhattan are just awful. They stand/work in conditions which are freezing or boiling hot. The near misses from collisions with trucks, taxis, are constant.
I challenge any of you defending this practice to go to Fifth Avenue and Central Park and see the poor animals trying to stay sane and calm. I got sick to my stomach, just watching . . .

From cvillecuse: This isn't a liberal or conservative issue, it's a stupid vs. not stupid issue. Horses are bred to be working animals. Just like dog breeds in the working group, they are happier when working. It's more cruel to these animals to take away the purpose for which they were bred. Putting these animals in a pasture is as cruel as putting an Irish wolf hound in an apartment.

From kack10429: . . . NYCers have been strongly opposed to horse-drawn carriages for at least 25 years. No NYC resident would be caught dead riding in one. Strictly there for tourists, who may not be aware -- or care -- about the conditions under which those poor horses labored . . .

From scribble: A smarter solution would be to limit them to Central Park -- and back to the routes that were once reserved for the horse-drawn carriages. To boost ridership, they moved them out onto the busy streets and that's where the problems happened. Many (not all) of the horses are treated like family. He is just making a political statement without knowing or wanting to know all the facts.

From janeycat: Thank the gods he is tackling such critical issue first! God forbid he is not taking on taxes or failing schools or crime or how expensive it is to live in the city.

Should New York City keep its horse-drawn carriages? Please leave a comment below.